Reading and Comprehension in the African Context

This book makes an important contribution to existing knowledge on the processes of reading and comprehension by identifying the various approaches and corresponding theories. The book is organized in various chapters that cumulatively lead to our entry into the three key areas. Chapter One provides important background to reading as a skill, explaining the hidden dynamics that avoid the process and outcome of reading. Chapter Two deals with comprehension and vocabulary, both very important aspects of the reading process, while Chapter Three focuses on the relationship between reading, remembering and perception. Chapters four and five deal with various ways of assessing comprehension and the role of the reader respectively.

Cover

Title Page, Copyright

Foreword

This book makes an important contribution to existing
knowledge on the processes of reading and comprehension
by identifying the various approaches and corresponding
theories. While most of us know the importance of the two processes,
few of us have mastered the various cognitive theoretical approaches
that can be adopted to make reading effective, informative and
enjoyable. ...

Preface

In writing this book, my aim has been to give an account of what
it means to be a proficient reader. Proficient readers are people
who can get the information that they want from a text efficiently.
The topics I highlight have not been given much attention in recent
reading text books. ...

Contents

Chapter One: Introduction

According to the 1999 National Population Census the Kenyan
population is composed of Africans who belong to different
mother tongues, Asians of several Asiatic languages,
Europeans of different nationalities, Arabs and other nationalities
that come from diverse linguistic backgrounds. ...

Chapter Two: Reading and Comprehension: An Overview

The ability to read with understanding is a skill that is essential
in modern society as there is a lot of material that needs to
be read and understood. Yet, a large number of people never
master it completely. Readers go unprotected from the struggle
with job application forms, and insurance policies, recipes, and
advertisements; ...

Chapter Three: Reading and Comprehension:
A Theoretical Framework

When reading, the ability to recognize as many words as
possible is important. No reading comprehension can take
place without the immediate recognition of the words in
the text. A lack of knowledge of words in a text could lead to
frustration and unwillingness to read further as it could hinder the
automatic cognition processing which is caused by fluency in the
language in which the learner reads. ...

Chapter Four: Reading and Comprehension: Cognitive Components

Recognition involves memory of things past. The interpretation
taken at one level is the decoding of words, but it also implies
the meaning the reader places on the words or the sentences
read. Researchers seem to be at a loss to explain fully as to what
stage do reading, memory and perception interact or what actually
happens when they come together but they seem to act
simultaneously. ...

Chapter Five: Reading and Comprehension: Techniques of Assessment

The purposes of reading assessment include comparing a
learners’ progress to that of his or her peers, screening
learners for special assistance, measuring an individual’s
progress over a period of time, diagnosing particular areas of strength
or weakness, using information for decisions about instruction, and
determining placement within a reading program or special facility. ...

Chapter Six: Reading and Comprehension: Some Practical Applications

If readers want to build immediate word recognition and quickness
in processing the word mentally, that is, quickly remember a word
meaning and link it to its context, which is the sentence in which
it is used and also the whole text, they need to engage themselves in
extensive reading. ...

Chapter Seven: Concluding Remarks

In the foregoing chapters of this book, I have attempted to
analyze reading as a complex learning activity in which readers
are required to demonstrate control of a number of variables
simultaneously. At word level, readers should understand letter
formation, sounds of letters, pronunciation of the words and word
meanings. ...

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.